


then you came along, with the love so strong

by interstellarbeams



Category: Outer Banks (TV)
Genre: Banter, Canonical Child Abuse, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/M, Future Fic, Hospitals, Hurt!JJ, Hurt/Comfort, emergency room visits, mentions of Sarah Cameron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:21:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26715139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/interstellarbeams/pseuds/interstellarbeams
Summary: JJ hurt himself accidentally and he really doesn’t want to be a burden but Kie insists they go to the hospital.
Relationships: JJ & Kiara (Outer Banks), JJ Maybank & Kiara Carrera, JJ/Kiara (Outer Banks)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 88





	then you came along, with the love so strong

**Author's Note:**

> Mentioned to the Jiara gc how I wanted to write hurt/comfort but something that wasn’t quite so angsty as JJ’s dad hitting him so... there are mentions of that though, cause this is JJ and it can’t be all fluff. 
> 
> Thanks for looking this over Lara and I hope this was what you wanted! 😉
> 
> Title is from _Out of the Cold into the Fire_ by Walking Hearts feat. Jason Dering.
> 
> Kudos and comments are appreciated! 💕

  
_This is too good for a man like me_  
_Be treated by someone so tenderly_  
_I'm afraid that I might wake up_  
_I might wake up some day_

_out of the cold into the fire_ — walking hearts, jason dering

————

“Aw, shit.” JJ muttered as he pushed through the door, the pale framing around the screen suddenly rusty with a bloody palm print. “Kie’s gonna kill me.” 

He tossed his house keys onto the coffee table as he passed it on the way into the kitchen.

Grabbing up a handful of paper towels, he struggled to rip them free with one hand while he tried to keep the blood from getting all over the newly cleaned kitchen. Finally, he managed to tear them along the perforation and shoved the wad against his palm, sucking in a breath at the sting, as he applied pressure to the wound to try and stop the bleeding. 

He hadn’t meant to cut himself. It had been an accident when he was tinkering with the engine of a vintage GT Mustang that he had bought at auction a few months back. It was practically his dream car and he had been so excited to work on it but hadn’t had the chance until today. 

Of course, this would be the day he ended up hurting himself, when Kie is off with Sarah and he had dropped his phone between the leather seats of the Ford and hadn’t been able to retrieve it without getting blood all over the expensive vintage upholstery. He had wanted to fix it up, but fine upholstery like that was hard to come by and even more expensive and he hadn’t allowed that in his expense budget — Kie would kill him if he spent much more of the money that he had made off the Merchant. He was supposed to be saving it ‘ _responsibly_ ’ or some shit. 

He swore again. He had no way to get a hold of Kiara without his phone and he didn’t think he needed stitches but he really didn’t want to take a chance and have to worry about further complications later on. 

He bit his lip as he peeled the sodden paper away from the wound, but he was happy to see that blood was no longer pouring from the wound. Hopefully it would clot soon so he could bandage it before his girlfriend got home.

“I spoke too soon.” He added to himself, when the door was shoved open and hit the opposite wall with a bang. He barely managed to control a flinch.

“JJ! There’s blood on the door. JJ, are you okay?”

“I’m in the kitchen.” He called back, wincing as the paper towel pulled at his injury. 

Grabbing the back of a chair at the kitchen table he pulled it out so he could sit down, a slight dizziness making his head spin.

“Babe. What happened?” Kie slung her purse off of her shoulder and tossed it on the table, not even flinching at the loud sound it made when the hardware collided with the wood. 

“Cut myself.” 

“Really?” Kie deadpanned but her _done_ expression dropped when she saw the open wound that practically split his palm.

“Oh god. _JJ…_ ”

“It’s not that bad, Kie. I’ve had worse.” And he had. Bruises, cuts and broken ribs along with strained muscles and one night that he had spent in the hospital after a brutal concussion that his dad had explained away as a fall from a tree that he had been climbing. The nurse on duty hadn’t even batted an eyelid. 

JJ had welcomed the absence of his father after hours in the hospital, when the slow beeping of the monitors and the rush of the AC should have offered him a well needed rest, if his concussion had allowed it, but the night nurse’s constant interruptions had kept that from happening.

“It looks horrible. Should we go to the ER?” She asked, brown eyes searching for an answer in his, white teeth clamped around her bottom lip. 

“I don’t know. I really don’t think it’s that bad.” He replied, though he could feel his heartbeat pulsing in the wound, though no pain _yet_ and his head whirled like a dust mote trapped in an errant breeze. 

“You were working on that motor, weren’t you? I saw the door hanging open and knew you wouldn’t have left the keys inside if there wasn’t an emergency. Why didn’t you call me?”

“Couldn’t. I dug my phone out to call you but I dropped it between the seats and— as you can see, I wasn’t going to be able to get it out like this.” JJ shrugged, trying to ignore the concerned frown that pinched her forehead. 

He wasn’t used to so much concern being shown when he was hurt and it was making him uncomfortable though a weird warmth tingled in his chest at the sight of her worried expression. 

“Oh.” Kie crouched down in front of him. Tossing a long strand of hair back over her shoulder, she bent over his hand, soft fingers cradling it like it was the most precious thing imaginable and not the dirty, bleeding grease-stained hand of a Maybank. 

“We should probably head to the ER. You need a tetanus shot just to make sure you don’t get lockjaw or something.” 

“Lockjaw?”

“Yeah. It’s really horrible. Just— please don’t ask me to explain it.” Kie shuddered and he couldn’t help but grin at her reaction.

“What?” She asked as she stood up and reached for her purse.

“Lockjaw gives you the heebie jeebies? That’s new. Usually you face down mud, blood and shit like it’s no big deal.”

“I have to. Can’t let you boys think I’m some simpering female when I wanted to hang out with you, so I toughened up.”

“Right…” JJ drawled, shooting her a smirk as she helped him to stand, one hand wrapped tight around his elbow like he was a grandma who needed help crossing a busy intersection. 

“Shut up or I’ll let you get lockjaw and die.”

“Aww. Come on, Kie. You wouldn’t let me die just out of spite. You love me too much.”

“That’s what you think.” Kie muttered as she grabbed her purse from the table and ushered him out the door.

The light was just starting to fade and the happy sound of frogs croaking in the long grass of the yard filled the evening as she locked the door behind them. 

“I don’t know why you’re trying to deny it.” JJ added as he followed her to the driver’s side door. “You wouldn’t be driving me to the ER right now if you didn’t care.”

Kie stopped with one hand on the door handle, turning she shot him a glare. “Why aren’t you getting in the passenger side? You can’t drive with your hand like that.”

“Who said anything about driving?” JJ murmured as he closed the distance between them. Kiara didn’t seem surprised at his closeness but she took a step back until she collided with the side of the blue truck.

“ _JJ_ , you can barely stand. What are you doing?” She sighed, but her irises were suddenly losing a fight with her pupils, her desire for him clear despite the rational part of her brain yelling at her to get him to the emergency room ASAP.

“What do you think I’m doing?” He traced one finger down the side of her cheek, an intense feeling of satisfaction rushing through him at the sight of her eyelashes fluttering against her cheeks and the steady movement of her chest escalating slightly.

“JJ. We need to go.”

“We can go. As soon as you open the door.”

Kie scoffed, rolling her eyes but she didn’t try to push him away or yell at him for being an ass. She just watched him with liquid eyes and he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to let her go after all.

“Can you stop trying to romance me while you’re bleeding to death?” 

JJ snorted, in disbelief. “Bleeding to death. Ha.”

“Look, I know you like to pretend that nothing affects you. That you’re strong and tough. I know you come from the school of hard knocks but I care too much about you to let you trivialize this.” 

“I know.” JJ bent his head to look down at his dusty boots, feeling chastened though he knew her words came from a place of love.

“Let’s get your hand fixed up and I’ll let you do whatever it is you were planning just now.” Kie’s arms wrapped around his shoulders and she pulled him in close so that he could smell the faintest hint of her perfume. 

“You thought I had a plan.” JJ teased, pulling back though he kept his good hand loosely gripped on her waist. “Have you met me?”

“Oh, I know that you take everything as it comes and don’t plan anything but when it comes to _that_ you’re practically a mastermind.”

“A mastermind, huh?” JJ chuckled, shaking his head as he moved to walk around to the passenger’s side.

The driver’s door slammed as JJ opened his own to climb inside, a quiet hiss of pain escaping as he tried to grab a hold of the door to close it.

“You okay?” Kie glanced over at him, concerned, key partway to the ignition.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m good. Guess the adrenaline is wearing off.”

“Hopefully the ER isn‘t too busy.” She offered him a brief smile before turning the key in the ignition and started the engine. 

————

“I wouldn’t have expected the emergency room to be this insane on a Wednesday night.” 

JJ turned from his inspection of the other people that littered the waiting room to glance at her. 

“Yeah.” JJ was trying to ignore the sharp pain that shot into his hand with every heartbeat but it was hard to find a distraction in the bland beige and cream wallpaper and the tv mounted in the corner that only played OTC ads on repeat. 

The glossy page of the out of date gossip mag she held made a rattling sound as she turned the page, the sharp jerk of her movements drawing his attention. 

“What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing.” Kie ducked her head practically burying her head into the magazine to avoid his gaze. 

“Kie, come on.” He reached over and placed his hand along her leg — she hadn’t stopped shaking it since they sat down after being told there was a ten people waiting list ahead of them. 

“I’m fine. Come on. Those bored looking receptionists over there wouldn’t let me bleed out on the floor.”

“They better not or I’ll have their heads.” 

“Ooh, feisty. I like it.”

“Settle down, _boy_.” Kie tossed the magazine over onto the table where it slid off and onto the floor, earning her a glare from a middle aged mom, who sat across from them with her arm wrapped around a green faced teenage boy. 

JJ grinned at her, the twinkle in her eye giving her real feelings away. “I saw that. I guess I’m rubbing off on you after all.”

“In your dreams.” 

“Every night, baby.”

Kie shot him a bemused look before turning so that she faced him. The plastic chairs were hardly comfortable and JJ’s ass was falling asleep but he was glad he was with her, no matter where they were. 

She lifted a hand to rub the back of his neck and he unashamedly leaned into her touch like a cat longing to be scratched. _He didn’t care a damn that they were in public; he enjoyed her touch and he wasn’t ashamed to show it._

“I’m sorry I’ve been acting weird. I just— I hate to see you in pain.” Kie’s voice was soft so that only he could hear it and he turned his head so that he could glance up at her from underneath his bangs.

“I told you. I’m okay, Kie. The doc’s gonna give me some pain medicine and then you’ll be wishing I was no longer under the influence.”

“Ha.” Kie huffed out a laugh, brown eyes warming with humor. “I’ve experienced you under the influence more times than I can count. I think I can handle it.” 

JJ’s witty comeback was interrupted by the nurse calling them back and he felt the sigh of relief that gusted out of Kie as she wrapped an arm around him. 

The tetanus shot had been the worst thing, the needle looked long enough to go through his hand and Kiara had been there to support him, barely even teasing him about how hard he had gripped her hand while the shot was administered.

The stitches didn’t even faze him — _twenty-five._ Kie had counted — though that could have been the anesthetic shot and then he got pain medication which he immediately swallowed, dry, which Kie protested that he didn’t need them just yet. 

The cab of the truck was dark as they drove away from the hospital and JJ stared at the moon through the windshield. “What is the moon doing up there?” 

“Up there?” Kie turned down the radio and the absence of the blaring music amplified the sounds of the frogs in the ditches as they rode toward home. “It belongs up there. It’s the moon.”

“I think she must be lonely without someone to talk to at night.”

“I guess so.” Kie didn’t seem very convinced but he hardly noticed as he got distracted counting the raindrops that splattered the window. 

The gear shift clunked as Kie parked the truck in front of the house, the rain tamping down the dust that normally would have billowed up around them from the dirt driveway. 

“You’ve never left me alone.” JJ forced the words out before he could lose them in the wildness of his wandering thoughts as she came around to help him out of the cab, his legs going wobbly underneath him.

“I’m not about to either. But, I think you should let me carry those.” Kie grabbed the crackling paper medicine bag from the truck cab and then slammed the door, the sound echoing in his ears.

JJ stumbled to a stop against the side of the house as she fit the key into the lock and opened the door. He didn’t move when she tried to lead him inside, grateful for the sturdiness of the wall against his back. 

He lifted a hand to push a damp curl back from her cheek, surprised he could even lift his arm, it felt so heavy, but the urge to touch her was stronger than the powerful medication pulling him down. 

“I love you, ya know?”

“I know.” Kie’s voice was soft, though he doubted it was as soft as the feelings that poured out of him like dripping candle wax. 

“You take care of me when—“ JJ struggled to speak around a catch in his throat that he normally would despise but this was Kie, she wouldn’t judge him. “When everybody else ignored me. You cared. I—“

“I know, JJ. I know. Just— let’s go inside, okay? We’re letting all the bugs in.”

“Right. Uh, sorry.”

JJ stepped over the threshold and she followed, shutting the door behind him. 

The kitchen lights had been left on and the illuminated a small patch of floor leading to the living room and JJ turned to ask her if she would switch on the lights when her arms wrapped around him fiercely.

“Whoa.” JJ wasn’t sure whether it was the pain meds or the blood loss (though it hadn’t been as bad as he had feared) but her weight against him practically knocked him over and he had to reach out a hand to catch himself against the back of the sofa. Unfortunately it was his left hand, the injured one.

Despite the strength of the pain meds, he still felt it when the pressure pushed against his newly stitched and bandaged wound.

“Son of a—“ He snatched his hand back and Kie jerked back at the sound of his curse.

“Oh, shit. JJ, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t—“

“Kie. Relax, it's fine. It’s just better for me not to use that hand for the foreseeable future.”

“How do you plan on romancing me then?” She teased, earrings dancing against her neck.

“Who says I need two hands?” He joked, enjoying the way her eyes lit up at his teasing.

“Ha, I’d like to see that.” Her hands drifted down from his shoulders, trailing down his back until she linked them at the base of his spine.

“Now?” 

“No. I’m good, if you are.”

“Yeah, yeah. I um— think bed is probably the best idea.” JJ wasn’t really comfortable admitting he wasn’t up for the job, but she didn’t seem to mind.

“It _is_ getting late.” Kie replied, though he felt like she was holding back her real thoughts.

“What’s the matter?” 

“Nothing.” Kie turned to glance behind her on her way down the hallway towards the bedroom. 

“It’s something. I recognize that face.” JJ followed her, the sound of her undressing a faint rustling as he moved into the room.

“JJ. I told you. It’s nothing. It was a long day of shopping with Sarah and then five hours in the ER with you. I’m tired, that’s all.” 

“Are you sure?” JJ sat down on the edge of the bed before looking at her. Typically he would tease her, maybe even grab her and pull her down to the bed as she tried to change her clothes, causing her to shriek in mock outrage (or real anger, depending on her mood) but not tonight. 

She straightened her tank top strap with one hand before she moved closer. Stepping between his spread legs, she set her hands on top of his shoulders. “I promise.”

“Cause I’m sorry that I had to go to the ER. I’m sure I would have been okay to just bandage it up here. You’re the one who insisted.” JJ wasn’t trying to start an argument, he was uncomfortable with the fact that she had to go sit up at the ER with him, when he could have avoided the hospital all together. 

His dad had never taken him to the hospital, except that one time. Half of the time he didn’t even care that JJ was bleeding everywhere, he just ignored him and JJ tended to appreciate that approach if it meant his dad was done beating him. 

“Baby. No. I— that wasn’t directed towards you. I’m glad we went. I don’t want you to be in pain. Or hurt.” Kie’s soft hands cupped his cheeks, lifting his head so that she could look into his eyes.

JJ didn’t see condemnation or anger there and he breathed a sigh of relief. Kie’s warm brown eyes were always a dead giveaway on her real feelings. 

“I love you.” She bent to kiss his forehead and JJ tilted his head so he could place one against her chin, the only place he could reach.

“I love you too.” 

“I know this is probably asking a lot, but try to be more careful next time.”

“Ha. We’ve already talked about how I don’t plan anything. I certainly didn’t plan this.”

“Yeah, well, that doesn’t bring me any comfort.” 

“That’s why I’ve got you. To keep me straight, on the right path and all that bullshit.”

“Oh, is that it? Okay.” Kie whacked him in the shoulder and he ducked away laughing as he watched her move towards the bathroom, hips swaying.

He might tease a lot, making jokes about everything but JJ really was glad that Kie had chosen him and treated him like he mattered. No feeling felt better than her care and attention.


End file.
